Desert Bistro
1266 N. Highway 191, Moab ; 435-259-0756
(see
map)
A good option for fine dining in Moab, although not every dish lives up to its billing -- and price.
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Cuisine: American, Cafe
Price: $$$
Hours: Open daily, Apr.-Oct. 5:30-9 p.m. Closed Mondays in July and Aug.
Liquor: Full Service
Reservations: Accepted
Accepts:    
Website: http://www.desertbistro.com
Recommended Dishes: Hot wheat bread, Caesar with chipotle chile dressing, crab cakes, lemon bundt cake.
May 30, 2007
A few rough spots mar this upscale dining oasis in Moab
By Anne Wilson
MOAB -- Moab Springs Ranch has been a local watering hole for 111 years. For much of that time, the watering really was all about water because the homestead, built of native handmade brick, was an oasis in the desert dust of southern Utah.
For two years, it's been the home of Desert Bistro, one of a few options in a town faced with a seasonal but growing demand for fine dining. Like many rural places that have been "discovered" by recreation seekers, Moab is under pressure to provide haute cuisine to people with money from big cities all over the world.
And bless them, the owners of Desert Bistro are trying, with mixed results.
The two-story restaurant has two dining rooms, outfitted with furniture made of local pine, that can seat about 30 people. Those tables can be reserved, but seating on the patio, which is shady but a little noisy due to the highway, is first-come, first-served. Service is friendly and efficient; we were seated promptly, although servers should be instructed to greet diners as they arrive. Diners must navigate their way across the patio to the hostess area inside the house. It's a little confusing.
Every meal begins with a bang -- hot, housemade wheat bread served with a dipping sauce of canola and pumpkin seed oil steeped in lavender, grown on-site. It's a winning, out-of-the-box pairing that could lead to overindulgence.
The menu has a Southwestern bent, with flavorings that include chipotle, Anaheim and poblano chilies. Entrees range from a "vegetable stack" loaded with eggplant, peppers, squash and tofu and accessorized with pine nuts ($18) to mushroom risotto ($20), a pine-nut crusted chicken breast with goat-cheese-stuffed tortelli ($17), and smoked elk tenderloin with a huckleberry/chipotle pepper/port wine sauce ($33).
The latter is some serious coin for an a la carte menu in rural Utah, which diners will reasonably assume means the owners intend to compete with the best of 'em -- in Salt Lake City or Berlin.
And they have chosen a spectacular setting, what with the restaurant's view of The Portal, a regional landmark carved over eons by the Colorado River. The view is marred by power lines and the parking lot, however, which I mention not because the owners necessarily have control over those things. They just seem symbolic of how the Desert Bistro menu translates from kitchen to plate. The food descriptions are grand, the ingredients high quality, but the execution is sometimes slightly off, like a cluttered view of a landscape so awesome it could be a painted backdrop to a John Wayne movie.
Exhibit A is an appetizer of salmon, scallops and avocado packaged in a neat little mound, or timbale ($9). The salmon is cured in salt then basted with tequila and the sea scallops are smoked for extra flavor. The packaging is clever, with graceful curls of red and yellow pepper and lime aioli adding visual interest and a little kick. But the avocado edges were black, which happens when it's exposed to air.
That didn't hurt its complex blend of flavors. But it looked spoiled, like the view.
Another visual turnoff was the salad of bibb lettuce with the contrasting crunch of red pears, jicama and candied walnuts ($9). It has a sweet pomegranate dressing, which trickles into the multitude of little crevices in the lettuce, making them look like blood vessels. Beyond that freaky mental picture, the dressing is overly sweet. Change the color and dial down the sugar in the dressing and this would be a great salad.
Given the choice again, I'd opt for the Caesar with a chipotle chile dressing and toasted cornbread croutons ($7) or organic mixed greens with gorgonzola, toasted sesame seeds, parmesan and a balsamic vinaigrette ($8).
Unless you're ravenous, Desert Bistro's portions are generous enough that a salad and appetizer (plus that fabulous bread) can make a meal. The crab cakes (made with shellfish flown in from Florida several times a week) come as twins, plated with a white butter sauce spiked with pineapple and ancho chili and a dollop of pineapple salsa ($11). The crab's delicate flavor almost gets shouted down by the aggressive accoutrements, but it's still a pleasant outing for your taste buds.
We also sampled the lamb loin ($29), which was perfectly cooked to order and tender. But again, the flavors were slightly off, with the chipotle and mint demi-glace overpowering the meat instead of enhancing it. A sidebar of layered, baked sweet potatoes needed caramelizing to bring out their sweetness. But the grilled peas, garnished with radishes, were genius.
Housemade desserts ($6-$12) offers multiple tempting choices, from chocolate mousse and rhubarb apple crisp to a lemon bundt cake with blueberries, billed as the owner's family recipe. It was moist and dense, with a pronounced citrus flavor. We only wanted more of the berries.
Desert Bistro has a full-service bar and a wine list comprised of mostly California vintages, with a dozen selections available by the glass ($5-$9).
I'll eat again at Desert Bistro when I visit Moab, because I love to sit in the shade of those old trees and think about the history of that place, which Robert LeRoy Parker (better known as Butch Cassidy) reportedly visited. Like the view, the food isn't perfect. But Desert Bistro has a creative spark, a vibrant sign of life in this beautiful but harsh landscape.
Tribune's rating system
Overall rating
1 star Good
2 stars Very good
3 stars Excellent
4 stars Extraordinary
Entree price
$ Entree under $10
$$ $10-$18
$$$ $18-$25
$$$$ Above $25
Restaurant Noise
1 bell Quiet (under 65 decibles)
2 bells Can talk easily (65-70)
3 bells Talking somewhat difficult (70-75)
4 bells Raised voices (75-80)
A bomb Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
The Tribune covers the cost of all meals at reviewed restaurants. Star ratings are based on a minimum of two visits. Ratings are updated continually based on at least one revisit. There is no connection between reviews and advertising.
May 24, 2002
Moab's Desert Bistro: Adventurous Food, With Prices to Match
By Anne Wilson
MOAB -- Karl and Michelle Kelley have a long history with this desert playground. For years, they spent their free time in Moab, doing what the other city refugees do: climbing, biking and playing in the Colorado River. Back home, Karl worked as a chef at a ski resort and Michelle ran the lodge's bar and catering operations.
They had plenty of time to indulge their other seasonal passion: skiing.
But Moab has a way of getting under your skin: the endless sky, searing wind, soaring red rocks and flowing water are beautiful but cruel, perfect for testing the body's physical and mental limits. The Kelleys finally made the move.
At about the same time, as luck or fate would have it, Moab's premier restaurant, the Center Cafˇ, was moving into new digs and leaving its old space vacant. What else could the Kelleys do but move in and open their own place, which they call the Desert Bistro.
As far as restaurants go, Moab is pretty crowded for a town its size because of the seasonal tourist influx. Most are moderately priced, family-style places with familiar foods.
The Desert Bistro aims to rise above the pack, with food that is more adventurous, with prices to match. Chef Kelley, who learned his craft by working rather than schooling, offers continental cuisine with Southwestern seasonings: rack of lamb with cilantro glaze, chicken coated with a corn tortilla crust, salmon cured with tequila and bread made with pinon nuts. His ambition is laudable because most of his food succeeds, although at times his aim seems a bit off. For example, a bread dipping sauce made of canola oil, pumpkin seed oil and fresh lavender was an unholy mix of flavors that didn't complement the subtle taste of Kelley's homemade bread.
Service at Desert Bistro is a cut above the standard of a rural town, although with its limited staff, meals can take a while. But with its large street-side window, white tablecloths, fresh flowers and original artwork, the Desert Bistro is a pleasant place to relax and enjoy a glass of wine.
The a la carte menu is well rounded: fish, pasta, chicken, pork, beef, lamb and elk all make an appearance, supplemented by daily specials. Four or five appetizers, several salads and half a dozen homemade desserts add up to a substantial output for a kitchen this size.
Kelley uses restraint in his seasoning, preferring to let the natural flavor of the food do the work. He doesn't like to add salt, something diners will deduce on their own when tasting his homemade corn bread, a yeasted loaf that is light and moist with a subtle corn flavor. A salad of butter leaf lettuce has a light citrus dressing but gets most of its flavor from jicama, tangerine and avocado ($6).
Cheeses are one of Kelley's most potent flavorings. He uses goat cheese as a stuffing for the corn tortilla-crusted chicken breast ($18), which gives it a wonderful tangy flavor and works well with its black bean salsa garnish. The meat itself was dry, a casualty either of the prep method or too many pans going on the stove at once. It came with cous cous gently flavored with jalapeno and a mix of fresh vegetables that were unadorned and crisp tender.
Cheese plays a supporting role with beef tenderloin, and almost steals the show. The steak, cooked perfectly to order, comes with a "crust" of Gorgonzola in the form of a cheese patty perched atop the meat ($24). This potent, salty cheese is a natural mate for meat (it tastes just as good, or maybe even better, with the rack of lamb) although the fat grams in this entrˇe are no doubt astounding. The steak comes with vegetables, plus expertly done garlic mashed potatoes.
The lamb is good, too, even without the Gorgonzola cheese crust, because it has its own apple-cilantro glaze ($25). But the side dish of grilled marinated red potatoes had a distinctly burnt flavor, as if they had been a little too close to the fire.
Daily specials are indeed special, judging by a recent offering of sea bass dressed with a tomato butter sauce that just had to be licked from the bowl; it was that good. Fresh fish in the desert of Southeastern Utah doesn't come cheap: this modestly size dish was $25, a pretty price considering it was just fish, plus a few spears of asparagus.
A couple menu items sounded better on paper than in their execution. Homemade avocado ravioli stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese ($20) came with a white wine sauce that wasn't on the stove long enough for the alcohol to cook off. Pasta doused with wine is bracing, to say the least. And the black bean cake appetizer was dry, despite its roasted corn salsa ($6). It needed the help of cream sauce, maybe flavored with cilantro, avocado or jalapeno.
Desert Bistro desserts are technically strong, if not quite as innovative as the rest of the menu. A custard, subtly flavored with orange, melted in the mouth and the carrot cake was stout enough to stand in for breakfast the next day.
The Desert Bistro will up Moab's dining bar a notch or two, and since the Kelleys like to climb, we expect the bar will only get higher.
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